846 Batchian. 



certained to exist by some days' search in the vicinity of each 

 village. In some places there is no virgin forest, as at Djilolo 

 and Sahoe ; in others there are no open pathways or clearings, 

 as here. At Batchian there are only two tolerable collecting- 

 places, — the road to the coal-mines, and the new clearings 

 made by the Tomore people, the latter being by far the most 

 productive. I believe the fact to be that insects are pretty 

 imiformly distribiited over these countries (where the forests 

 have not been cleared away), and are so scarce in any one 

 spot that searching for them is almost useless. If the forest 

 is aU cleared away, almost all the msects disappear with it; 

 but when small clearings and paths are made, the fallen trees 

 in various stages of drying and decay, the rotting leaves, the 

 loosening bark, and the fungoid growths upon it, together with 

 the flowers that appear in much greater abundance whei'e the 

 light is admitted, are so many attractions to the insects for 

 miles around, and cause a wonderful accumulation of sjDCcies 

 and individuals. When the entomologist can discover such a 

 spot, he does more in a month than he could possibly do by a 

 year's search in the depths of the undisturbed forest. 



The next morning we left early, and reached the mouth of 

 the little river in about an hour. It flows thi-ough a perfectly 

 flat alluvial plain, but there are hills which aj^proach it near 

 the mouth. Toward the lower part, in a swamp where the 

 salt water must enter at high tides, were a number of elegant 

 tree-ferns from eight to fifteen feet high. These are generally 

 considered to be mountain plants, and rarely to occur on the 

 Eqviator at an elevation of less than one or two thousand feet. 

 In Borneo, in the Aru Islands, and on the banks of the Ama- 

 zon, I have observed them at the level of the sea, and think it 

 probable that the altitude supposed to be requisite for them 

 may have been deduced from facts observed in countries where 

 the plains and lowlands are largely cultivated, and most of 

 the indigenous vegetation destroyed. Such is the case in 

 most parts of Java, India, Jamaica, and Brazil, where the vege- 

 tation of the ti'opics has been most fully explored. 



Coming out to sea, we tui-ned northward, and in about two 

 hours' sail reached a few huts, called Langundi, where some 

 Galela men had established themselves as collectors of gum- 

 dammar, with which they made torches for the supply of the 



